


Facts and Information

by imusuallyobsessed



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Married Couple, Married Life, Mild Language, Pregnancy, labor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 20:59:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15227769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imusuallyobsessed/pseuds/imusuallyobsessed
Summary: Felicity wakes up in debilitating pain in an unfamiliar place. But don't worry, it's not what she thinks.





	Facts and Information

**Author's Note:**

> Written while procrastinating the rewrite of S6 I’m lucky enough to be part of. (Sorry olicitysmoaky!)
> 
> My mom worked in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for 10+ years when I was a kid. A lot of my information comes from her, and this is based on a true story.
> 
> Idk if this fits into canon. It’s probably AU. Just work with me, people.
> 
> No beta. No apologies.

Sharp, crippling pain woke Felicity with a gasp. Her blue eyes flew open, seeing nothing but darkness and unfamiliar shapes.

Terror spiked, stuttering her heart.

Then, she remembered.

Oliver and Felicity only been in this new house for a week - barely made the move in time - and she was still getting used to the new shapes the darkness made.

A now-familiar kick drew her hand to the large bump protruding from her body. “Sorry, baby,” she murmured, rubbing against the pressure of her little one’s movement. “My little Ada. Mommy just forgot we moved is all. Dr. Schwartz says I can blame pregnancy brain.”

The pain faded. Felicity sat up and sighed. Braxton Hicks. False contractions. Would they ever end? She’d been having them on and off for a month now. Her due date was in five days. She’d been ready to get this baby out of her since about the five month mark.

Not that she didn’t love her daughter already - even though she was born. She was just ready to be alone in her body again.

That thought had her looking at the space next to her. Oliver slept soundly, mouth half-open and a hand halfway sprawled to her. He didn’t even twitch. Normally, Felicity would be worried. An unexpected fly buzzing in the bedroom could wake her husband from a dead sleep. But they’d only been asleep for - Felicity glanced at her phone - two hours. And this was coming off three days with a grand total of about six hours of sleep.

Team Arrow had been hunting for a child kidnapper. Dylan Webster. Despite being over eight months pregnant and due to pop any day, no amount of anything anyone said had been able to stop Felicity from using all her resources to hunt him down. She would’ve done it anyway but with their own baby girl on the way… It felt personal. Their daughter would grow up in a city where children were safe and protected. Felicity wouldn’t stand for anything else.

But Felicity knew there was no going back to sleep now. The Braxton Hicks…

Felicity’s thought abruptly cut off with another surge of pain. Her mind raced through everything she’d been taught. Braxton Hicks were irregular. The majority of the time, they didn’t hurt. It had been about ten minutes since her last one, and there was definitely pain.

No point in panicking. Felicity got to her feet - wobbled, really. It was impossible to be graceful with her due date in five days. She snatched her phone off the bedside table and - once the pain subsided - started her phone timer.

She was halfway to the bedroom door when she paused. Should she wake Oliver?

Her immediate instinct said no. After the first time she’d had Braxton Hicks - when he’d rushed her to the hospital despite all the facts and figures she was spouting to prove she wasn’t in labor - she’d taken to only telling him about the false labor pains when they were over. Much to his chagrin. But he didn’t want to upset her this late in her pregnancy, and Felicity would take all the special treatment she could get. She was growing a human life, for frack’s sake. She deserved a little extra respect.

Oliver was incandescently thrilled to be a father. But all through Felicity’s pregnancy, he’d been hypervigilant, prone to panic, and overprotective.

Felicity understood why. So, she’d never complained.

Well, not much. There was that knock-down, drag-out fight they’d had when he tried to tell her she couldn’t work with Team Arrow anymore. Since then - only three months into her pregnancy - the team had become terrified of her now-legendary temper.

So, just in case it was another false alarm, she wouldn’t worry him. It was only three a.m. Let him sleep a while longer. He so rarely slept enough.

Felicity brought her pillow down to Oliver’s hand - grinning when he wrapped it in his arms and pressed his face against it in sleep - then departed the bedroom.

She went to the nursery.

Oliver had been in a whirlwind to decorate the room as soon as they moved in. In fact, it was the only room in the house entirely unpacked besides Oliver’s beloved kitchen. Moving boxes still littered the halls, hazards Felicity navigated by moonlight.

But the nursery… oh, Felicity loved it. Once the paint was dry and the bigger furniture in place, Oliver deemed it safe for Felicity to enter and she’d spent almost all her alone time there. Unpacking, organizing, reorganizing, decorating… Nesting, really, and Felicity could hardly believe her own instincts. She’d never considered having children before Oliver, and sometimes her own body still amazed her. It knew what she and the baby needed.

They’d decorated the room in a soft green. Despite knowing the gender as soon as humanly possible - Felicity liked facts and information - she’d already decided on a more gender-neutral theme. Pink was overdone and cliche. A white crib stood against one wall, cream and grey bedding creating the soft space her baby would sleep once it was out of the bassinet. A rocking chair dominated one corner, upholstered in a pastel print of baby animals, and the whole room was littered with soft touches - toys, rugs, play chests, and more.

Jewish law forbade gifts to unborn babies but the law had relaxed in more recent times. And Felicity had never claimed to be the most strict with her religion.

The bacon cravings she’d indulged in during her pregnancy were between her and Rabbi Schneelburg.

Felicity sat in the rocking chair and felt another clutch of pain low in her abdomen. Like a period cramp, but longer and worse.

She checked her phone. It had been about ten minutes. Again.

Regularity. Contractions. Oh, frack. This was real.

Felicity settled in. No need to wake Oliver yet. Facts and knowledge calmed her fluttering heart. Until the contractions were about five minutes apart, there was no need to go to the hospital. And that would be hours yet.

\---

The sun rose about three hours later. Felicity had drank plenty of water, puttered around, put some finishing touches on the nursery, and double-checked her hospital go-bag. The last thing she did before waking Oliver was eat a hearty sandwich - no food allowed once she was admitted. And she would already be in enough pain without having to handle being hangry.

“Oliver,” Felicity murmured, seated on his side of the bed. She ran a hand up Oliver’s arm, grinning when he turned into her touch and rolled on his back. Her hand settled over his heart.

His sleepy blue eyes blinked open and he grinned. “Hey, honey,” he murmured. He leaned over and kissed her belly. “Morning, Ada.” He laid back and put his arms under his head, miles of bare chest and muscled arms on display. Frack, Felicity wished they had just a little more time. “Why are you up so early? And…dressed?”

Felicity leaned over and kissed him, taking in this last moment of peace. This last moment of just the two of them. From now on, they’d have a new little life in their lives. They’d never not be parents again.

“I’m in labor, my love. We need to go to the hospital.”

Oliver blinked once. Then exploded into action.

“Shit! Dammit! I mean, crap! I don’t want cussing to be the first thing the baby hears!” Felicity couldn’t help a smile as Oliver flew around the room and threw on the first clothes he could find - green sweatpants and a haphazardly button clean plaid shirt. He shoved his feet into sneakers and ran out of the room. Felicity followed behind him, content to follow in his flurried wake.

“Does it hurt? When did it happen? Has your water broken?”

Felicity answered all his questions gently - yes, a few hours ago, and no. It was a testament to Oliver’s panic that he didn’t react to the fact that she’d been awake and in labor for hours and hadn’t told him.

Thankfully, he remembered both her and their go-bag and shuffled her into the car. He had to help her in - still graceless until the baby was out of her uterus - flung himself into the driver’s seat, and paused only to ensure they were both wearing their seatbelts before he drove into the early morning streets.

It was Saturday, thankfully, and they were too early for any work traffic even if it had been a week day. Oliver was simultaneously asking her a million questions and trying to keep her calm, and Felicity just kept taking deep breaths and gripping his hand when a new contraction hit. Frack, they fucking hurt.

Oliver didn’t handle her contractions well. She briefly considered downplaying them, but her ability to think of anything beyond her uterus was rapidly dwindling. And frack, she’d been sweet and compassionate and understanding of Oliver all through this pregnancy. Today, it was gonna be about her.

They made it to the hospital in fifteen minutes. Oliver rushed her into the ER, shouting, “My wife is giving birth! My wife is giving birth!”

They’d done a walk-through of the hospital. Dr. Schwartz gave them the full run-down over a month ago. They knew where to go. What to do. But Felicity was busy feeling horrible, pinching pain in her body and Oliver devolved a bit when Felicity was in pain and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

Felicity was distantly aware of everything happening. They made it to labor and delivery. Nurses cycled in and out, checking her dilation and praising her clear head when she described the events of the morning. Oliver sputtered when she told them she waited to wake Oliver since he “couldn’t keep his fracking head about the baby” but he didn’t disagree.

The pain was unbearable. But she had to bear it. Worse than period cramps that kept her home, moaning in pain in high school. Worse than getting shot. Worse than all of that combined multiplied by 100.

Epidural? Fuck yeah. Nitrous oxide gas? Fuck. Yeah.

Oliver tried to remind her that she’d decided against both in her birth plan. Felicity almost crushed all the bones in his hand and bit his head off.

The epidural made everything better. It was odd to watch her lower body spasming and twitching and jerking without any input or feeling from her brain. But the relief from pain was heady and intoxicating.

And through it all, Oliver was there. Holding her hand. Brushing her sweaty hair off her face. Giving her ice chips. Allowing her verbal abuse and agreeing to every hurled insult and insistence they’d never have sex again. And he took it all with a sort of wondrous, impossibly big love in his eyes. And even through the pain, through the screaming and anger, she couldn’t believe how much she loved him.

At least, until the final moment of horrible pressure came, passed, and a little alien-looking baby was placed in her arms, directly on her chest.

And Oliver was edged back one place in her heart. But she knew he wouldn’t mind, because his eyes told the same story.

“Ada Smoak Queen,” Felicity breathed, unable to contain the overflowing love in her heart.

“Thea’s here. Digg, too. Your mom is flying down, I already got her on a flight.”

“They can wait. I pushed her out, I get to spend time with her first.”

Oliver just grinned. “We made her,” he murmured, captivated.

Felicity smiled. Her whole world was here, within arms reach. And she’d never been happier. “We did. Our perfect little girl.”

“God, Felicity… I love her so much.”

Felicity tilted up and kissed him. “Me, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all liked it! Check me out on social media for more, and you'll even get to know when I post my parts of that S6 rewrite that's in the works ;-)
> 
> Tumblr: [@imusuallyobsessed](https://imusuallyobsessed.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [](https://twitter.com/usuallyobsessed?lang=en)


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